Embroidery as Making Space: A Hands-on Workshop with Théo Bignon
Schedule
Fri May 29 2026 at 04:00 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Roozamoon Cafe | Toronto, ON
Join Montreal-based artist Théo Bignon in an embroidery and embellishment workshop, oriented around the possibilities of queer place-making.About this Event
To celebrate the opening of material disobedience, artist Théo Bignon will hold an embroidery workshop in Toronto! Come learn about his beading technique and create your own embellished embroidery. Bignon’s practice of embroidering and beading meaningful locations in queer life to mark the relationship between place and the crafting of queer identity. Participants are encouraged to bring an image of or an object from a place that is important to them and their identity — this could be from spaces of friendship, found family, sexual liberation, emotional release, transition, and many more. Following a short discussion of his work, Bignon will lead participants through the process of sketching, embroidering, and beading a vignette onto a small circle of cloth as a way of reflecting on our everyday, unconscious place-making practices.
The workshop will take place at Roozamoon Café (398 Queen St E, Toronto) on Sunday, May 31, 2026 from 4-7pm. The Lost & Found (located just a few doors down) will be open for an exclusive preview of the exhibition, so you can see Bignon's works in person and get inspired to create your own.
Spots are limited, register for your spot now!
ABOUT MATERIAL DISOBEDIENCE:
material disobedience is an exhibition that showcases contemporary craft practices that reclaim and revel in what has been labelled as the frivolously feminine, the scandalously queer, or the exotically ornamental. Rhinestones, beads, crystals, embroidery, textiles, and ceramics have all been variously perceived as symbols of “excessive” cultures or lifestyles, an association that has served to reinforce creative hierarchies and trivialize marginalized identities. By centering these trivialized materials in their work, the artists entwine visual and haptic pleasures with critical analyses of labour, gender, sex, and colonialism. These works seduce us while glittering in friction-–in the artists’ skillful handling, gendered and racial norms give way to refusal and self-creation.
The exhibition will be on view at The Lost & Found Project Space (tlaf.ca), 420 Queen St E, Toronto, from May 30 to June 20, 2026. Curated by Madeline Collins (ON), featuring Théo Bignon (QC), Molly JF Caldwell (AB), Lux Gow-Habrich (ON), and Hea R. Kim (QB).
This exhibition and programming has been developed as part of the Openwork Project (tlaf.ca/openwork) and funded by the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. The panel discussion will be hosted by Harbourfront Centre Craft & Design, and we would also like to acknowledge the incredible generosity of artverb* in helping to realize this exhibition.
Where is it happening?
Roozamoon Cafe, 398 Queen Street East, Toronto, CanadaCAD 0.00
